Description: Both a fascinating account by an informed outsider and a reminder of just how much China and the rest of the world have changed over the last fifty years, this is essential reading for anyone interested in East Asia and Asian history as a whole.
Brief description: Erik-Jan Zürcher is director of the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, as well as member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Turkish Studies at Leiden University.
Review Quotes: "This book provides a fresh perspective from a contemporary sinologist on Mao's China and vividly recounts the effect of three months' close observation on the enthusiasm and fantasies of a Western leftist regarding the communist system." - Woyu Liu, Nanjing University, Europe-Asia Studies, 70:9 (2018) "Zürcher's Three Months in Mao's China is an important source for scholars interested in the society and culture of the Cold War, and in everyday life and the politics of traveling in Mao's China. It also sheds much light on the Cold War generation of leftist Chinese observers. Thanks to the editors, Zürcher's rich and valuable comments on modern China are retained in this edited work. As a primary source, I recommend it to scholars and teachers of both modern China and Cold War history." - Zixian Liu (University of Toronto), H-Socialisms (May, 2018).